260 AGRICULTURAL BACTERIOLOGY 



teriorate rapidly. Their use under carefully controlled con- 

 ditions is successful. Such conditions were obtained in 

 France both as to preparation and use. Under commer- 

 cial conditions in this country, the Pasteur type of vaccine 

 has not been an unqualified success. 



Recently the simultaneous application of the protective 

 serum and vaccine has been introduced. A horse is immun- 

 ized by the injection of gradually increasing doses of a 

 virulent culture of anthrax. It is possible so to accustom 

 the animal to the organism that 500 cubic centimeters of a 

 highly virulent culture can be given at one time, or more 

 that ten thousand times as much as would have killed the 

 animal at first. The blood of the horse will have a high 

 content of protective bodies. The animal to be protected 

 is injected with a quantity of serum on one side of the 

 body and with a small quantity of a somewhat weakened 

 culture on the other. The United States Bureau of Animal 

 Industry has prepared a spore vaccine for use with serum. 

 The vaccine is very permanent, due to the resistance of the 

 spores. But one treatment is necessary, and, it is claimed, 

 no losses are occasioned by the treatment. The treatment 

 can be used only on non-infected animals. In the vaccina- 

 tion of a herd in which the disease has appeared, only ani- 

 mals with normal temperatures should be vaccinated. The 

 other animals should receive only the serum, which is a 

 curative as well as a preventive agent. The stock-owner 

 should not rely on vaccination alone to prevent the spread 

 of the disease, but should use all possible precautions to 

 limit the distribution of the organism, especially in the dis- 

 posal of carcasses. 



Disposal of carcasses. In the unopened carcass the or- 

 ganism cannot form spores, owing to the lack of oxygen; 

 but in the discharges from the nose and rectum, and in any 

 .blood that may be brought in contact with the air in making 



